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Shadowless Grounds
Story Summary: This is a work-in-progress collab by me, Matau99, and Tundra the IceWing (title by Shadowandsilverluv19) that is based off my RP which can be found right here . Otherwise than that, a short summary is as follows: Fierceteeth has broken off from Glory and crowned herself Queen Fierceteeth. Now, Glory is torn between her duty as queen of the RainWings and her duty as a dragonet of destiny. Not to mention the mystery of Oasis and the SandWing treasure.... Prologue The night hung heavy over the desert and shadows lay across the golden dunes, blanketing the sands in silky shades of black and twilight gray. Dawn was still distant, and the piercing beams of the sun had not yet sent the darkness skittering over the horizon. Now, silence ruled the desert, excepted only by the occasional cricket or maybe a viper sliding over the dunes. Not a single dragon was awake at this quiet hour, and the SandWing palace lay dark and cold on the horizon, a hulking stone behemoth, awaiting the sun. Surely, nothing could disturb such a calm. However, inside the palace, all was not restful. Queen Oasis, ruler of the SandWings, rushed through the stone halls, the clicking of her talons on the smooth stones echoing through the dark passageways. Glinting anxiously, her eyes scanned the walls, darting back and forth. Over and over, Oasis whispered to herself, "It has to be fine. The treasure chambers are locked." Her words served as both a reassurance and a silent prayer as she strode through the dark halls. That night, Oasis had awoken, feeling as if struck by lightning, and she was compelled to check the treasure rooms before she could feel at peace again. With every step she took, the shadows grew darker and more dangerous, and it seemed that every corner held an enemy. Soon, even the slightest scrape of her wings on the hard stone walls made her jump and the dragging of her tail made her want to bite something. When the signature SandWing barb on her tail snagged on something, Oasis whirled, already inhaling to incinerate whatever dared to grasp her. However, there was no enemy, only a door that had been carelessly left open. She relaxed visibly, until she realized exactly whose door that was. ”Now why would Blister have her door open, I wonder?" Oasis mused, growling through her clenched teeth. Blister, her middle daughter, was the daughter Oasis both hated and feared most. From the time she had hatched, Oasis had known that this dragon would challenge her and win. It was an unreasonable suspicion, she knew, but still, just the thought of Blister roaming the palace at night sent chills down the queen's spine. Maybe it was something about the way Blister's obsidian black eyes followed Oasis' every move, or maybe it was how Blister was plotting a new scheme every day. Oasis shoved these thoughts out her mind. ”No need to make myself more paranoid than I am already," she muttered under her breath. Hurrying around the last bend, she came skidding to a stop. The great arched silver doors of the four treasure rooms lay ahead, still and ominous, sealing away the treasures beyond. ”''Three moons,'' let them be locked," Oasis murmured frantically. With trembling talons, Oasis reached out and ran her claws over the twisting carvings that ran windingly through the silver metal. Grabbing hold of the door handle, Oasis took a deep breath, closed her eyes and pulled. The doors swung open without complaint. Oasis' heart plummeted into the pit of her stomach. Slowly, she forced her talons to walk her into the room and she opened her eyes. A shriek of rage, grief and shock echoed through the palace, resounding through every corner, hall and room. The treasure rooms were bare, picked clean by thieves. Oasis inhaled slowly, and a heavy, leafy scent filled her snout. Now, she knew exactly the identity of the bold invaders who dared to steal from her. Trembling, Oasis hissed, her eyes narrowed down to slits, "Rob from me, will you, puny scavengers?" Her fury lowered her voice to a deep growl. She smiled, but it was a cold smile, as icy as the winter winds, displaying only the steely satisfaction of one who is certain of revenge. ”Don't worry, little thieves, you won't live to enjoy it." she whispered. With that, Oasis slammed her wings down, creating a back draft that whipped through the treasure chambers, and the queen slipped into the night air, a dark harbinger of vengeance vanishing into the starry skies. Outside the palace, three small shapes crept down a rope and scurried away from the palace. The three thieves had almost made it. Three more seconds and they would have scampered over the dune and safely escaped with their prize. However, they weren't quite fast enough, and Oasis landed with a soft, powdery puff in the sand behind them. The night was still and the scavengers had no warning. Before they could even react, Oasis had swallowed the first one whole. The other two spun, fear flashing across their small, pale faces. The thin female dropped her sack and bolted behind a dune, vanishing from sight. Unfortunately for the third and final scavenger, he lacked his companion's intelligence and running speed. Gibbering, he clutched his sack to his chest and yowled loudly, waving his arms frantically. Amused, Oasis glanced at the pale white form standing there and whipped her tail forward, neatly tossing the unwanted guest into her jaws. Snapping her jaws in satisfaction, Oasis stopped. Deathly silence had overcome the desert. Something was wrong. The sands were never still, as nature's rhythms and creatures were always humming out some quiet melody or other. A high, eerie whistling slipped over a far dune, and danced playfully across the sands, accompanied by a small breeze that frisked around Oasis' heels. Inside her mind, something warned Oasis to stay away from the ethereal whistling, but she couldn't resist. "Surely, nothing could happen," she murmured to herself, overriding any objections from her instincts. Darting forward, tail raised, she rushed over the dunes, creating small puffs of sand in her wake. At the top of the dune, Oasis paused, and as she did so, the sand began to whirl around her talons, obscuring her pale scales. Howling, the wind whipped around, forming a funnel cloud, twirling around Oasis' tail and catching her wings. Every scale in Oasis' body screamed, "SANDSTORM! Fly!" By then, however, it was too late. The roaring winds buffeted around Oasis, pinning her wings to her sides and flattening her ears. "This is no natural sandstorm," Oasis insisted to herself, "If it were, I'd be dead, torn to shreds by the gale. This storm is animus-touched." She twisted, and caught a dark shape strolling through the grains of sand like a fish through water. Drawing herself up to her full height, Oasis screeched out through the winds "You traitorous, backstabbing viper! I never would have thought--". The queen gave a sudden roar of fury, but it was too late. Shrieking, the wind shot to a piercing crescendo; the sands rose to the stars and Oasis, queen of the SandWings was gone, claimed by the desert winds. Chapter 1 Up above, the heavens glowed with violent shades of orange that danced like wraiths across the clouds. The gray volcanic basalt of the island starkly contrasted the jumping flames that raged across the island, sending smoke drifting skyward, obscuring the volcano in the distance. However, no earthly flames could match the mental inferno that blazed inside the huge black NightWing's mind that night. It seemed to him that every one of his dreams were gone, lost to the volcano; his tediously maintained schemes were thrown away, lost and forgotten. He himself had been scorched down to his bones in the explosion. With every labored step, his wings and scales screamed in pain and his tail dragged like a chain behind him. Although Morrowseer praised himself on being scientific and rational, he couldn't help but wonder whether a series of omens had prophesied his ruin. First, his ally and comrade, Whirlpool had toppled into a moat of electric eels, and now, everything Morrowseer had ever hoped for was gone, incinerated by a lava flow, or buried under a hundred tons of rock. Surely, he should have foreseen this. No, Morrowseer, you fool! You wanted to believe that everything was perfect! You refused to take more caution. Killing the dragonets from the start would have been the sensible thing to do! Did you do it? No! Of course not! ''Morrowseer silently cursed. Maybe he deserved this, for his foolishness. Now, all that mattered was survival. Everything else was hopeless. He supposed even survival was pointless. His wounds were probably fatal, and besides, he had given all his plans to Fierceteeth just before the eruption. She would continue this. The NightWing tribe he had devoted his life to would move on, and memories of him would fade into the mists of time. Looking up at the stars, Morrowseer wondered where to go. With Whirlpool and him disabled, surely, his mission would fade and die without anyone to continue fighting. ''I must continue. For my tribe. He forced himself to believe this, despite the lightning bolts of agony that ran through his scales with every step. Even the crunching of the rocks beneath his talons, which rang out bright and clear, seemed muffled to Morrowseer. His despair made everything fade to shades of gray and black. Soon enough, he mused, I will collapse. So, this is how it will end. ''Only one dim hope remained in the NightWing general's mind – Blister, his SandWing ally might help. At the prospect of this, a bolt of hope shot through him, and he clung to it, as one stranded in the desert clings to a water canteen. Although, he speculated, ''I shouldn't be this '''excited' to see her. We are allies, nothing more.'' A thought sprang into his mind. Perhaps Queen Blister has romantic feelings for me. There have been a few hints of it, but it's become slightly more... probable recently. They aren't reciprocated, of course. But if they were... '''Enough.' We're not in love, and we can't be. We've both got duties far too demanding. Speaking of which, I need to get to the portal. Maybe I'll be able to sneak back in, because they'll assume I'm dead.'' Determined, he forced his talons to move him just a little farther. In the end, unfortunately, it was just too much and he collapsed, reality fading away into the void of darkness. ---- The sun blasted the dunes below, and the air could not have been any more roasting if it were in the core of the sun itself. However, to the SandWing princess listening to the messenger before her, everything seemed cold and dismal. No, he couldn't be dead could he? She murmured to herself. Her world seemed on the verge of collapse – The NightWings, her last allies, caught in a volcano's fury. Seemingly, the world was against her. First, the SeaWings severed the alliance she'd had for years, and now this. Also, although she would never admit it, she had a bit of a crush on the NightWing high general, Morrowseer. Impossible though it seemed, he was gone now, along with any hope of her winning the war. Without her secret allies, her ace in the hole, Blister knew her chances of claiming the throne were less than nil. Compelled, she lifted off, needing to see this for herself. For, if she just accepted this now, she knew she was dead. Acceptance would demolish her courage faster than a stone sinking in the ocean. After that, she knew it was only a matter of time before her sister, Burn, caught her, and she ended up just another stuffed exhibit in Burn's collection. Flying and investigating, this was the only way she could keep herself from utter surrender. Wafting like burning, caustic scarves, smoke drifted through the air, a mirror of Blister's mood as she descended upon the NightWing homeland. Unrecognizable was her first impression as she thumped down, the clattering of pebbles echoing into the still air. What looked like a nuclear wasteland from those scientists' diagrams lay before her. Steaming piles of rubble lay everywhere, and although the fires had been mostly extinguished, the smoke and lava lay everywhere, reminders of the chaos nature had unleashed upon this place, a few short weeks to go. Shuffling her wings uncomfortably, Blister took a step, the sound ringing into the still air. There was no denying it, this place got on her nerves. Soon, she had her barbed tail raised, poised to strike down an intruder faster than one can blink. As she strode forth, a black mound caught her eye. Rushing over, Blister's breath stopped in her throat. Morrowseer was here. She reached over, and tentatively touched his snout. A current of air whisked over talons. Breathing, he was breathing. Good, there was hope. Not much hope, but hope nonetheless. Now, she needed to transport him back to the desert. Gathering her strength, she prepared for the long flight back, to get some support, but by the moons, she would return. One last chance, she mused. I mess this up, and I lose the war. Category:Fanfictions Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete) Category:Collaborations Category:Content (Tundra the IceWing) Category:Content (Matau99)